1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to remote communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to computer mediated remote communication.
2. Background Art
We are presently in the midst of a virtual culture revolution in which the role of computers as socialization portals is beginning to rival their earlier roles as information management and commercial tools. The unprecedented popularity of websites such as MySpace and Facebook, for example, have demonstrated the increasing importance of Internet-based virtual communities, which are capable of providing both entertainment and social networking opportunities. These popular Internet resources show that as the demographic of computer users has broadened and diversified to include a younger population at ease with sophisticated technology, computer mediated virtual communities are becoming resources of choice for the development of casual social relationships.
There are numerous benefits to the virtually borderless communities that can arise through computer mediated socialization, among them being the benefits accruing, particularly to the young, from appreciation of the varying life experiences of socialization partners of different ethnicities or living in far-flung geographic locales. There are also significant hazards to developing virtual relationships, however, flowing in part from the intrinsic remoteness of the interactions. Physical remoteness, as well as perhaps age disparity, and divergence in social mores, may lead to misunderstanding, psychological injury, or worse. Unfortunately, these risks are particularly acute for the young and potentially socially inexperienced demographic most apt to seek out virtual venues for social interaction opportunities.
A conventional approach to protecting visitors to virtual communities is to require users to register with the website in order to gain access to its content. By requiring a user to provide personal information including details of their true identity, those websites attempt to exclude users having a nefarious intent, while also providing a deterrent to misbehavior on the part of well intended registered users who might express themselves in a less circumspect manner if their communications were truly anonymous. Although successful in erecting something of a barrier against inappropriate social interaction, the all or nothing nature of this conventional approach has undesirable consequences for most virtual socialization content providers.
The disadvantages associated with the conventional approach are especially undesirable for providers of mixed content, combining commercial entertainment or information content that does not include a socialization component, with content that does offer opportunities for social interaction. Because providers of mixed content desire maximum exposure for their commercial content, they aspire to attract as many visitors as possible to their virtual communities, and seek to make their commercial content generally accessible to all visitors. As hosts of social interaction enabling content, however, those same providers must find a way to manage social interaction so as to prevent inappropriate socialization. The challenges posed by this dilemma are clearly not resolved, or even adequately addressed, by the conventional all or nothing approach.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a method of protecting visitors to virtual communities enabling of social interaction from inappropriate or unauthorized social contact, while advantageously making co-located commercial content generally accessible.